The Gallery is great and I found a theme I love, but what the heck do I do now?

No worries, we’ll give you a step by step guide on how to put your theme on the web as a fully functioning website. In order to get your site live on the web, you will need to download the theme you’ve chosen, purchase the Genesis Framework if it is not sold as part of your theme (makes your theme work), and purchase hosting services (this is where all the files that make up your website are stored and accessed by others on the web). The cost of your theme will vary on the publisher who is selling it. If the Genesis Framework is not sold as part of your theme, you will need to purchase it here for $59.95. And lastly, you will need to purchase hosting services, which cost around $5 to $7 a month. I’ve used Hostmonster and been happy with them. As a new signup, you can get hosting through them for $4.95 a month usually. So in total, you can get your site up and running for around $170.

What you need to buy:

1. Buy the Genesis Framework here ($59.95) and download it to your desktop where we can find it easily.
2. Select and purchase your theme from our gallery of themes. Download your theme to your desktop where we can find it easily.
3. Purchase hosting services. I use Hostmonster ($5 to $7 per month).

What you need to do:

Install WordPress:

1. Log into Hostmonster, and go to your dashboard. Look for “cPanel” in the upper left and click it. – SEE IT

2. Click on “WordPress” under the “Website Builders” section. This will log you into the Mojo Marketplace where you will install WordPress, which is the core of your website. – SEE IT

3. Select which domain to install WordPress on and click “Check Domain”. – SEE IT

4. After checking the domain, a message will tell you there are already files in your account. A new hosting account will install a few default files into your new domain. These can be overwritten, so click “Continue”. If you have already installed a website on the domain, don’t continue as it will overwrite it. – SEE IT

6. After a short time, WordPress will finish installation and you can go log into your new site! The login page of your site will be yoursite.com/wp-admin (replace “yoursite.com” with the name or url of your site). – SEE IT

Install Genesis:

1. Log into you website by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin (replace “yoursite.com” with the name or url of your site). – SEE IT

2. In your dashboard on the left, hover over “Appearance” and click on “Themes”. – SEE IT

3. Click on “Add New” at the top or “Add New Theme” below where there are already a few default themes installed. – SEE IT

4. On the install theme page, click “upload” at the very top. A window will pop up where you can navigate to and select the Genesis folder. – SEE IT – It needs to be a zip file, so if your Genesis folder is not a zip folder, you will need to compress it. On a Mac computer, right click the folder and hit compress. On a Windows computer or PC, right-click the folder, point to Send to, and then click Compressed (zipped) folder. After selecting it, click the “Install” button. – SEE IT

5. Once Genesis is uploaded and installed, click “Return to Themes page”. – SEE IT

Install and Activate Your Theme:

1. When you’ve returned to the themes page from the last step above, you’re going to repeat a few steps. Begin by clicking on “Add New” at the top or “Add New Theme” below where there are already a few default themes installed. – SEE IT

2. On the install theme page, click “upload” at the very top. – SEE IT – A window will pop up where you can navigate to and select your theme folder. It needs to be a zip file, so if your theme folder is not a zip folder, you will need to compress it. On a Mac computer, right click the folder and hit compress. On a Windows computer or PC, right-click the folder, point to Send to, and then click Compressed (zipped) folder. After selecting it, click the “Install” button. – SEE IT

3. Once your theme is uploaded and installed, click “Activate”. – SEE IT – That’s it! Your website is up and running and you are ready to add content through pages, posts, and widget areas. Your theme publisher should have instructions for making your site look just like their demo as well as how to add content.

I don’t want to screw around with all this and just want my site up and running so I can start adding content. Do you offer a service to do this?

Yes. We can get your site up and running so you can focus on adding your content. All you have to do is purchase your theme, Genesis, and hosting from a provider like Hostmonster. We can then take it all, set it up, and hand the keys over to you. Our setup fee is $350. You can read more about this service on the services page.

Are any of these themes free?

Yes. There are many free themes in the gallery. To view only free themes, simply click on the “FREE” category among the numerous category tags above the gallery. This will sort the gallery to only show free themes. Please note that while the themes are free, you still need to purchase the Genesis Framework for the themes to work.

How much does it cost to get a website up and running?

You can get your site up and running for around $170. Here’s a breakdown of what you need and the cost:

A hosting account, like Hostmonster – $72 a year (this is where the files that make up your website are stored and accessed by users on the web).

Averaging things out, that comes to about $170 to get a website up and running.

Why should I make my website with WordPress, the Genesis Framework, and a theme?

Because they are all rock solid and well performing website platforms with tons of extras, support, and a huge community that develops them and regularly updates them.

WordPress:

It’s free and open source forever, period. No hassles, not fees, nothing.

It has a huge community of top notch developers that maintain, update, and develop it.

WordPress is very secure and vulnerabilities are patched and fixed quickly.

WordPress has an enormous community that develop plugins and themes. Literally thousands of plugins and themes are available for WordPress that will do almost anything you need.

WordPress is super flexible and can be used for any kind of site.

Google, Bing, and other search engines love WordPress because it has good SEO (search engine optimization). This means your WordPress site will rank higher in searches than many other non-WordPress sites.

WordPress is updated regularly.

There is a huge community of WordPress developers to help you make custom changes, provide support, and do other things, like design, styling, layout, and full custom sites from the ground up.

WordPress proveds a superb CMO (content management system). This is also referred to as the “backend” and is the system of menus and screens where you put in your content, like text, images, videos, pages, posts, etc.

WordPress comes built with solid spam tools to help keep your site safe and turn away spammers.

WordPress supports cross blog communications or Trackback and Pingback standards. This means you can see who is linking to your site and WordPress will notify search engines and other top blogging services with Ping-o-Matic.

WordPress is packed with excellent standard features like menu configuration, media handling and uploads, and so much more!

WordPress is user-friendly and has a moderate learning curve.

WordPress is an easy platform to monetize, whether it’s creating an ecommerce store, displaying ads, creating a subscription service or premium content, etc, WordPress has you covered!

Setting up a WordPress site is by far one of the cheapest ways to get an excellent website up and running fast, hands down!

Bottom line, WordPress is used by about 20% of websites on the web. WordPress is used by almost 100 million websites. Why? Because it’s that good.

Genesis has great SEO (search engine optimization), which means your site will rank better than many non-Genesis themes on search engines like Google and Bing.

Genesis is built to perform! It is lightweight and the code is optimized to make your site fast! You’ll see that your pages load effortlessly and fast with the Genesis framework.

Genesis updates automatically, so no worries!

Genesis has excellent support, extendability, and a huge community of developers, which means you’ll have all the help, tutorials, and coding pro’s you need to make your site perfect!

Genesis provides responsive HTML5 designs. This means you’re site will be up to date and current with the latest web technologies and coding practices and standards.

Genesis provides great security to keep your site protected from online threats, spammers, viruses, sql injections, and other vulnerabilities.

Genesis is built to be easily customized and tweaked. It includes great options and functionality built right in, like page layouts, widget areas, and much more!

Genesis is developer friendly, and there are tons of excellent Genesis developers ready to customize your site to perfection!

Genesis is built with speed and performance in mind, which means the expert coders have made the code lightweight, clean, and streamlined.

Genesis provides threaded comments and Gravatar integration.

Great thumbnail integration.

a host of great tutorials and snippets.

Finally, over 100,00 sites trust the Genesis Framework.

Genesis Themes:

There are a ton of amazing and professional themes built for the Genesis Framework.

Genesis themes can take advantage of all the robust options, features, and functionality of the Genesis framework, including numerous page layouts, widget areas, SEO, Schemas, fast and streamlined performance, and so much more!

There are many developers creating amazing custom themes for Genesis, because it is an easy and solid platform to build on.

Many themes built for Genesis are professional, stylish, and designed to make your content look amazing.

There is a ton of support, tutorials, and a huge community for Genesis themes.

Themes built to work with the Genesis Framework will not be lost when Genesis updates. Themes are future-proof and will always work great on Genesis. When Genesis updates, you won’t lose a thing on your website. It will jsut keep getting better!

over a 100,000 sites are using Genesis child themes on the web!

What is the difference between WordPress, the Genesis Framework, and Themes (also called child themes)?

Think of the whole thing like this: Imagine you have a house, and with one click of a button on a magical remote, you can change the layout, style, and furnishings to match those of a home on the page of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

Let’s break it down:

WordPress: This is the foundation and core of your website. Think of it like an empty house with white walls.

Genesis Framework: This is like the magical remote that allows you to apply a style, design, and furnishings to your blank house.

Themes (child themes): These are like the pages of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine that show all different kinds of home styles, layouts, colors, decors, furnishings etc.

Do I ever need to update or upgrade my theme?

No. That’s what makes the Genesis Framework so awesome! Genesis will automatically update itself when needed, and it will leave your theme untouched, so nothing gets messed up or lost. It’s a worry free platform and system that you just can’t beat. Some theme authors do make changes and updates to their themes, but they are not necessary for your website to keep working and running. Authors typically update themes to add features or meet new internet, coding, and technology standards. For example, StudioPress, a maker of Premium Genesis child themes, has updated a number of their themes to meet new standards like HTML5 and the mobile responsiveness demanded by small screens like smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. But even if you purchase a theme and there is an update for it later, your site will continue to run fine without the update. Theme authors generally provide instructions on how to update their themes if necessary.

Can any of the themes in the gallery run without the Genesis Framework?